User blog:EchoHolic/Echo's Corner: Marriage, Expansions and You
Hi everyone, I'm the famous procrastinator and vaporware developer, Echo. Recently I've ringed my 74th 77th 82nd ship in the game, and will probably ring many more in the months to come. Its a great feeling, knowing my wallet hates me for spending so much on 2D illustrations and the fact that I'm a giant fucking weeb. And my wallet doesn't even actually have feelings! But I digress. In many communities there are people who often say that Level 99 ships can get the job done as well as Level 165 ships, and I generally agree (Despite marrying this many). However, in Kancolle, there are certain ships, that when married, have some interesting properties as a result of certain game mechanics added over the years. Some also have very fun things that are possible, due to the new variation of items that can be equipped in the expansion slot. This post will highlight some of these special girls and what you can do with them. But before that, lets go over a brief summary of what giving a ring to a ship does. For further info, Marriage page is always available as well! Marriage Properties Level Cap Increase First of all, ringing a ship raises her level cap from 99 to 165, as well as a free level up to 100. Going from level 100 to 165 is Generally this means that if you're a pessimist, this means longer repair times and equates to increased bucket usage. If you're an optimist, this means Akashi gives more bang for her buck as she will generally repair HP at a fixed rate. (Don't tell me its wrong, I'm not gonna explain Akashi in this post) Level in KanColle affects a few things. First off, a ship's base internal accuracy is based off Level and Luck, both playing a minor role in boosting your overall chances of hitting things. A level 1 ship has an innate +2 from her level stat, and a level 99 ship has an innate +19.90 as a comparison. What about a married ship? Let's say we're really devoted to PvP and 3-2, and have a level 165 ship. Her internal accuracy from the level stat is +25.69 , which is a +5.79 increase in accuracy. Disappointed by the numbers? Yes, for all that grinding, if you round up the numbers, its basically a 6% increase in chance to hit shit. Whether you think that its something worth grinding for, is in the eye of the beholder. HP Cap Increase Upon ringing your ship, depending on its class, and type, they enjoy a boost in vitality ranging from as low as +2 (Maruyu, Hayasui and Kamoi), or as high as +9 (Yamato and Iowa). This as a result also 'raises' the damage state threshold slightly and may come in handy in those close shaves with Red or Orange HP. HP however, is a weird thing in KanColle where due to the Overkill Protection mechanic, some of the real tryhard Admirals out there punch in armor values and stuff trying to figure out the chances of hitting red, and for some destroyers, ringing them actually INCREASES their chance of hitting red. If you want to figure out if marrying a ship helps or harms their overkill protection chances, the rule of thumb is any multiple of 4 minus 1 (4n-1) gives the best chance, and any multiple of 4 itself (4n) gives the worst chance of survival. Multiples of 12 are amusingly the absolute worst of all. Pessimists and monogamists out there also will point out that increasing the HP pool once again, increases overall repair times, increases the amount of damage taken from scratching, and all sorts of good stuff. I'm obligated to point that out as well, but what do I care, and why should you? Luck Increase All ships, once ringed, will additionally enjoy a random luck boost ranging from +3-6 . Generally this will give minor boosts to your accuracy and evasion, but more importantly for night-battle oriented ships, this is a helpful boost to their chances of Torpedo Cut-ins. No one can complain about more Luck. Uncapped ASW, Evasion and LoS Stats This is rather somewhat of a side effect of the Level Cap increasing. , and are stats that scale with your level, and as such, when you continue to level, they also go up. This is particularly interesting on ships that have high growth stats for these values, as they will out-scale those with a high initial base, but low growth values. This also has the amusing side effect of certain ships having lower at 165 at Kai-2 as compared to Kai, as their growth values were reduced due to a higher base stat. (Example: Murakumo and Ayanami's Kai-2 has 2 less than their Kai forms, 116 compared to 118 initially.)''' Cutting Resupply Consumption by 15% This right here is the main proponent for marrying Large ships. 15% off ships like Yamato-class, or Iowa is no small amount, and during event time, this discount can make every resource count when it comes down to it. Unfortunately it has a few shortcomings. Bauxite resupply for plane-users is not counted, as well as repair costs. Full price for both instances, so if Yamato gets hit, you're still paying by the truckloads on and Other minor things * You get a new line when you molest them on the home screen. * Your office will be littered with sakura petals. * A ring will appear in the library entry, but only for the version you married at that time. * You get to watch a marriage ceremony where they zoom in so hard, everything is more pixelated than your favorite doujin. * Marrying a ship reduces the Overweight penalties regarding Battleship guns by 40%, in-case you really need 46cm Cannons on Kongou. * If your ship is damaged before marriage, the ring works as a glorious 700 Yen Interesting Ships to Marry/Punch Okay, now that we have that out of the way, we can get into the real reason I'm typing this post. I feel like its worth mentioning these at least somewhere even if its somewhat niche, so if you ever feel like a hipster, you can try these out for yourself with your own wallet. Yuudachi and Ayanami "But wait Echo, Yuudachi isn't niche you fucking fossil!", you'd say, and you're right. Yuudachi and Ayanami are definitely prime ring considerations for many, partly because they're cute/potato as fuck, and also that they gain much needed luck for building them into a devastating Poi/Ayaya Cannon. But, these two can actually be much more than simple stat sticks you swing at Event Bosses, and I'll explain: '''OASW Yuudachi at Kai 2 has a pretty remarkable stat, being one of the few ships that can achieve it even without marriage. But once she hits level 145, that's when she has enough to OASW with only 1 Type 4 Passive Sonar. This means she can now equip something along the lines of , and if your torpedoes are a pair of well upgraded Prototype 61cm Sextuple (Oxygen) Torpedo Mounts, she'll still hit Night Battle Damage cap easily. Equipping an improved Sonar will also increase her torpedo evasion as well. This greatly increases her survival odds against submarine nodes that are often around in Event maps, while yet having maximum Night Battle potential. This OASW won't kill something like New Submarine Princess, but it'll easily take out/disable a So-class. I omitted Ayanami initially for this section, but after consideration its much easier to talk about her here as well. Ayanami can do all the same things Yuudachi can do with this set-up, but with two caveats. Firstly, her combined night battle power is 6 points lower than Yuudachi, which is definitely an issue if you wanted to min-max. Secondly, her stat growth is not as high either, and it will take her a whopping level 165 to be able to OASW with one . Yes, she literally only gained the same ability when the level cap was increased not too long ago. If you're devoted to leveling her all the way, you'll have a pair of incredibly versatile destroyers on command. Footnote regarding ringing of Shiratsuyu-class Kai 2s This is a minor thing, but it should be mentioned that all Shiratsuyu-class Kai 2s have 31HP, (The best HP value statistically for Overkill Protection) which means when married, their HP rises to 36HP, which is one of the worst numbers when Overkill Protection is concerned. I'm of the opinion that the pros outweigh this con when marrying, but its something to note. Luckily, in this day and age where HP modding through DEs is a thing, this problem can now be alleviated with enough effort. Other Night Battle-oriented DDs There are a couple of small mentions of DDs with high NB stats that can also OASW with 1 Type 4 Passive Sonar, but they can't reach the 300 Night Battle Cap unlike Yuudachi and Ayanami, so take these as honorable mentions rather than actual recommendations: '- Level 165' (158 Base NB) '- Level 162' (157 Base NB) '- Level 149' (155 Base NB) '- Level 157' (152 Base NB) '- Level 152' (158 Base NB; Will have separate section for her soon) Akizuki, Teruzuki, Hatsuzuki and Suzutsuki Akizuki-class is an incredibly strong and useful class of DD, most noted for their unparalleled ability to cause enemy planes to think they're in the Bermuda Triangle. While marrying them doesn't improve their ability to do this, it does allow them: OASW Akizuki and her sister's own stats are nothing to sneeze at, but the stat itself most often overshadowed by their . However, at level 137 for all of them, they are able to OASW with 1 Type 4 Passive Sonar. This allows them to operate as an utility monster with . If you're worried about gimping their AACI, don't worry. This setup procs AACI 2, which has the same AA boosting properties as AACI 1, but with 1 less slot shot-down. Delegating all the utility operations to Akizuki-class will also free up slots for other ships in your fleet at minimal cost. Isuzu Isuzu Kai 2, a ship that used to be prevalent as a radar farm, and then quickly faded into obscurity. She received a lot of extra utility buffs over the years, but none have really given players a reason to use her. Although I do have her ringed, I do not encourage ringing her, but instead using a Reinforcement Expansion on her instead: Isuzu is able to do some incredibly silly things once you give her an extra slot to play with. For example, you can pretend she's Akizuki-class Lite and equip her with , which will give her a strong OASW and AACI 15, a weak version of AACI. However, Isuzu is actually capable of OASW even without any Sonars equipped. And that's when you can go real crazy with her set ups. If you'd like to dip into Isuzu's career as a Night battler, you can also equip her with , or if you want to dabble in AACI 14 for a slightly stronger AACI performance. These setups will allow her to AACI, OASW and still double attack at night for about ~180 per hit in Night Battle. Not something you'd use everyday, but its incredibly amusing that she's even capable of all this. Kitakami and Ooi Simply put, arguably the most broken ships in the game. Marrying them has a lot of benefits, from giving them some actual HP, to lowering their morbidly high ammo consumption, and the modest luck boost to turn Super KTKM-sama into Hyper KTKM-sama. There's little reason NOT to ring them if you have some spare change, and as a nice bonus, you can try this cute setup out: OASW Not only are they good at slinging torps into Abyssals for days, Torpedo cruisers enjoy extremely high stats as well. In fact, at level 101, they get that little push of to be able to OASW with , allowing them to preemptive not only ships, but subs as well. Their daytime ability to wreck havoc is generally unchanged, as both of these raging lesbians already hit 151 with just one midget submarine, but obviously this setup removes their nighttime prowess that they are so well known for. Still however, this setup does have some useful applications, such as maps like 5-2 and such where sub nodes are unavoidable, and you have little need for an obscene amount of Night Battle firepower. Small side note regarding Kiso though, she can actually do this at level 96 a.k.a. without a ring, but she generally leaves people wanting with her stat, and thus I generally would not recommend it on her. Maya Maya is the quintessential souped-up version of the Akizuki-class' power, in Heavy Cruiser form. Sporting an even stronger AACI than Akizuki-class, Maya is the shipgirl you bring to the battle when you want to absolutely clear the skies. Personally I will advocate both marrying and punching Maya-sama for the following: Night Battle Capability Ever so often we bring Maya for her capability, but Maya herself has more to her stats than just . Her base NB stat is a respectable 161, which is 5 points lower than Yuudachi, but 10 points lower than her more offense-oriented sister, Choukai. Equipping Maya with along with augmenting her luck will allow her to be a menace in the night, while slightly weakening her AACI in return. But, that's where... Reinforcement Expansion ...comes into play, whereby the is now able to be moved into the new slot, and our setup for Maya can now be , restoring her fearsome AACI while being able to punch into Abyssal bosses at night. This setup gives her the versatility to move her into the Escort Fleet during events, where her versatility and flexibility with setups makes her a fearsome and highly recommended member of any fleet. Even without marrying her, using a Reinforcement Expansion on Maya is still highly recommended, allowing you to run artillery spotting set-ups on Maya in tandem to her AACI. She's just a gal that keeps on giving in any and every situation, giving you arguably bang for buck. MORE TO COME Category:Blog posts